Chicago - Day Three and the trip home
Current mood: tired
Where do I start with this... there's so much...
Yesterday (Sunday) wasn't very eventful, which was just fine with me. After the previous two days, I was hurting pretty bad and needed the time to rest.
We did go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The lunch was the best part. We went to the world famous Gino's East Pizzaria downtown and had the deep dish pizza that Chicago is famous for. This was always our favorite place to go for pizza, and we haven't been there for quite a few years, because whenever we would go visit my family, it seems that if they get north of Route 30, they get a nosebleed. But I digress... we had an absolutely marvelous time there and decided to take some random pictures around town, including the Bartman ball inside Harry Caray's, Marina Towers, The House of Blues, etc. Hope you enjoy them!
Now... for our trip home...
We had an early pickup at the hotel (5 fucking AM) and got to Midway Airport well before boarding, went through security, and found a place to have breakfast (another Harry Caray's... so sue me!). We knew our new-found friends from the Billy Goat and Parrothead Porkers (Gayle and Tommy Lancaster) were going to be on our flight, so we got a chance to talk a little ahead of time. When we got on board, there were a few problems.
First, it seems that the airline switched planes on us and we went from a 717 to a 737, which for some reason caused a whole lot of double booking. This double booking caused us to remain on the ground for about an hour past our schedule takeoff time. When we FINALLY got in the air, the captain told us that air traffic control routed us about 150 miles out of our way, and this would put us in Atlanta at about 12 noon, which was just 3 minutes from our connection. Well, so much for that, I thought. But as we were taxiing up to the gate, we saw that our connecting plane was still at the gate we had to board at, which was just one gate away. So when all the bozos who were blocking us (on the plane) were taking their sweet time getting their carry-ons, I yelled (I've got a 3 minute connection!!!) and quickly the waves parted. I ran out into the terminal, and heard someone say "Connecting flights"... I yelled out our flight number and was directed to the customer service agent who would help us. He started telling me how we had to wait for the next flight, which was 4 hours away, and we couldn't get on the flight that was still on the ground. SO ran over to the gate and started putting the squeeze on the agent there, which did no good. They had already given our seats away and were not opening that damn door for anything! So... everything has an upside, right? We found the Budweiser bar and spent our little comp tickets on Buds and lunch. We had the most marvelous time swapping stories with the Lancasters, and honestly, I hated that we had end our good time to get on the plane. I thought there would be nothing more to report at that time, but I was wrong!
We were having our usual good time with the people boarding, but then the male flight attendant (Bob) came over to us and asked us if we would mind changing seats with this couple in the very back of the plane because the woman was extremely claustrophobic. Bob told us he would comp our drinks if we would do it. Quickly (like a split second) I said sure... sign me up! Little did I know that I would have the same reaction that woman had... I sat down in the rear of the plane... with a wall to my right (no window), a seat in front of me, SO on my left and a wall to my back, and suddenly I had this overwhelming urge to escape or I would die!!! I told SO to move, and if he hadn't, I was going right OVER him! I'm pretty fearless on most things, but this really got to me. I kept apologizing, saying "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it would affect me like this." Bob asked us if we would like a cocktail... that he appreciated that we tried... but I politely declined and tried to get comfy again. The sight of that closed-in area lingered in my mind, so I tried reading. We weren't off the ground yet... in fact, the flight attendants were still trying to fill 4 seats, including the two we had just vacated. We heard this oriental woman giving Bob a hard time about having to move back to where we were before. Poor Bob... he was being as nice as he could be, but this woman was on stand-by, so she should have just taken what she was given and shut the fuck UP about it. Bob came over to us and said, "I'm about to slap Yoko". We just died laughing and it took all the pressure out of the situation for me.
So we finally took off... and this young woman sitting next to me was reading... and I asked her if she would mind opening the window shade so I could watch the takeoff. Actually, I was still feeling a bit claustrophobic, so I wanted to be able to see out. She quickly opened her shade, but it dropped about 1/3 of the way down. She kept putting it back up and it kept dropping. It really got comical. We were laughing about that too, when I told her that it was okay, as long as I had some light coming in. The plane went through a lot of turbulence coming into Memphis, and I sighed a bit as we came in... Memphis is such a downer after being in such a wonderful place all weekend. Oh well...
Going through the Memphis airport pissed me off... mostly because when we were departing Memphis, security took away my leatherman, which I had forgotten was in my laptop case. When we came back, I went to security and demanded to have it back. I didn't get anywhere with the so-called "supervisor" who just wasn't going to go look for it and would rather sit there and stuff his face. I told him that I would write and letter and that that son of a bitch owed me $50 for a new one. Asswipe...
Our sons came to pick us up at the airport, and we took them out to eat... all three of them... my chosen adopted son, Ron, had been staying at our house all weekend, so we invited him to dinner too. Rhys' 18th birthday was Sunday and the birthday boy always gets to go where he wants to go. He chose Coletta's, so we had pizza again... I had to get to Wild Oats before going home so we'd have food for the morning. Now we're doing laundry and settling back in.
Work tomorrow... and I'm so tired...
Nazdrovie'
Paczki Puta
No comments:
Post a Comment